Gangster
Akbar Ali (Mammootty) is forced to enter the underworld after his fathers demisal, who later anchors in Mangalore. There he makes a team with Uncle Sam (John Paul) and Mani Menon (Kunjan). The entry of Anto (Shekar Menon) brings a rift between them and what happens next forms the crux.
Mammootty is an Actor who can easily take off a movie of this genre with his screen presence and Aura, even without much content. Unfortunately, he is given a lazy character and is under-utilised big time. Apart from looking cool in some scenes he has literally nothing to do. Nyla Usha has only limited screen space and she is okay. Shekar Menon is impressive as a crazy sadist, but looks repetitive in few scenes because of too much screen space. John Paul and Kunjan as the villains are fine. T.G Ravi is good in the role of Akbars Godfather. Others are adequate.
The story of the movie is wafer thin and is nothing new. All it wanted was an engaging screenplay and good execution. Unfortunately, the screenplay is predictable and half-baked. Aashiq who was expected to present it well, disappoints here. His way of slow narration becomes the biggest flaw of Gangster. Apart from some neatly executed scenes which is few and far, there’s nothing from the Director’s part.
As expected Gangster is technically top-notch with Alby’s Cinematography taking the the largest pie. Some of his aerial shots are on par with some best works till date. Deepak Dev’s background music is alright and the only song ‘Allahu Akbar’ is placed right, but lacks the much needed impact because of the weak writing. The editing could have been better with lots of long sequence testing the patience. Climax fight is well executed and looks realistic. The movie is narrated in the beginning with 2D animation which is done impressively but a movie like this could have been narrated originally which could have been raised the overall impact.
The movie starts quiet interestingly with the animated narration and is followed by some stylish scenes. But afterwards writing goes weak and it is just above average towards interval. Post interval things get better and Ajmer portions increases the tempo followed by Akbar’s rise which are fine. Soon it looses the steam and what follows is tad and boring end. The story, though not new, showed an opportunity to become a perfect masala potboiler but the makers had tried something like an experiment which goes half-baked. Gangster can be categorized as an above average fare finally but taking the hype and hoopla around it, it’s a disappointment. Some visuals, a stylish Mammootty remains as positive once you leave the hall.
